Shenzhen D6

Scotty's 1/72 Tie Fighter from Fine Molds

Part 2

After waiting for nearly a week for my batteries to turn up I continued on with the tie fighter build. My original rig for the battery didn't work so well so I managed to find a button battery surface mount which is nearly small enough to fit in the bottom of the tie. I cut bits off and sanded it down and just managed to get it to fit right so the bottom lid piece will also fit. There's a magnet behind the battery holder which is mounted in the hole underneath the pilot seat and there's a magnet installed in the centre of the bottom lid piece so it can be easily removed to put a battery in for lit or a magnet in the batteries place for non lit. This will also serve as a magnetic mounting point for a flying base in the future.

The canopies were polished using tamiya finish compound and then dipped in acrylic floor wax. I masked off the canopies using the masking stickers supplied with the kit. These were printed on a kind of sticker and needed to be cut out with a scalpel blade. I've never used printed masking stickers before. They fit perfectly but the glue is very weak and the sticker material rather thick so I tried burnishing them down a bit with a blunted tooth pick to avoid spray going beneath the masks. I'm not sure how well they are going to work but I'll have to wait until the painting is complete to find out. Fingers crossed. Here's a great tip for gluing transparent parts to your models. Leave some acrylic floor wax in a paper cup over night. The next day the wax will be thick and sticky due to evaporation and the paper cup absorbing some of the fluid. This can then be applied to the canopy or whatever using a toothpick and when dry will be crystal clear.

I masked around the inside parts of the wings and sprayed them with black primer. I then gave them a coat of satin varnish which should give a bit of a textural contrast to the rest of the tie which will be all matt. I masked them before painting so a strong bond can still be attained when glued into the frames. I also drilled out a hole on the inside frame piece of each wing panel so I can mount a magnet in each later. I mounted a magnet in each wing arm of the hull. This will allow the wings to be easily removed and re attached to the finished model for safe transport.

Here's a pick of the hull fully built with the canopies attached. I sprayed the canopies and did some very basic pre-shading using thinned down black primer.

Thanks

Scotty